“Written in the stars”

We are on issue 5 of this new volume, and no luster has rubbed off yet. The creative team keeps everything exciting and fresh. While Spider-Man is a character that is 50 years old, in this iteration he still feels exciting and new. Nothing old hat yet. It’s a good time to be a Spidey fan.

The issue opens with the fallout over their encounter with the newly christened “War Goblins” (which is such a freaking cool concept by the way) with Bobbie (Mockingbird) and Peter (Spider-Man) having a heated conversation over the events of last issue. While Bobbie respects what Peter did to save his Aunt May and her husband, she is an agent and the mission comes first. She voices her displeasure to his decision by giving him a right cross to the jaw. (ouch, you would think his Spider-Sense would have warned him at least there) No time to argue, Peter switches into his civvies and with a push of his chest emblem his Spider-Suit morphs into a spiffy pair of dress clothes. (a nice little nod, to his black costume symbiote days, but without the crazy killer side effects)

Peter and Bobbie jet right back to Parker Industries  (Peter’s moved on up quite a bit from being a lowly shutterbug at the Bugle to being a Tech mogul) for a quick board meeting. Basically with help from SHIELD (Strategic Homeland International Espionage.. bla bla bla, you know the name) they are tracking a criminal organization called Zodiac. (no fancy acronym there) Since they are in London, they narrow down the list of next targets and they are on their way. There is a funny little scene here with the Parker Industries staff with the helper robot offering refreshments and everyone refuses. However we learn that trapped in that humble robot shell, lies the consciousness of the evil Dr. Octopus, which will no doubt be a bother down the road. Another great scene is when they set out to fight the bad guys, Johnny (aka Human Torch) asks Peter which one of his cool new expensive toys will they be taking, and Peter says they are in a town with tall buildings so he’s going to use his webshooters and just thwip it. (This scene made me smile, good ole Spidey doing good ole Spidey things)

Of course this leads us all to the big brouhaha in the London museum, where our heroes battle it out with Zodiac forces and their mysterious leader Scorpio. Spidey and company seem to be holding their own just fine when Scorpio pulls a kamikaze trick up his sleeves forcing retreat. Fury tells Spidey that at least the mission wasn’t a total failure, but Peter can’t get behind that as the distraction allowed Scorpio to get away.

Overall: This title has just been a lot of great big fun. While The Force Awakens recaptured all the magic of the original trilogy for me, this comic is the closest I have seen a creative team come to recapturing the magic of the early days of Spider-Man by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Dan Slott and Giuseppe Camuncoli have done a terrific job of infusing all the elements that make Spider-Man comics great: power, responsibility, angst, guilt and humor. They have found a way to keep that classic feel while putting a nice coat of brand new over it. Sure Peter’s no longer a poor kid from Queens, but hey rich people have their problems too. (just ask Tony Stark and Donald Trump) Starting the arc with a new villain mystery is also part of great classic Spider tales. Scorpio’s identity is revealed here at the end of the issue and I couldn’t help but feel like I was reading an old Spider-Man comic from the 80’s with the Hobgoblin. Very cool stuff indeed. Good job to the creative team. For you can take the boy out of the neighborhood, but you can’t take the neighborhood out of the boy and that’s exactly what they are doing with our friendly neigh.. no, friendly WORLD Spider-Man. Epic ride so far. Catch you next month and Merry Christmas Webheads!

Story: Dan Slott and Christos Gage Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli Cover: Alex Ross
Story: 8 Art: 9 Cover: 9.5 Score: 9 Recommendation: Buy